I've been reading threads on this site for some time now and finally decided to post.
I started losing my hair about 5 years ago, slowly at first and with no hairloss im my family i kind of ignored it for a while.
Finally used the belgravia centre 2 and a half years ago for propecia and 12.5% minoxidil, yes i know i could prob find it cheaper but already used finastride for 6 months prior which was clearly not genuine . This way i know its genuine but costs about 25% more.
I flew out to washington for a FUE transplant with Dr Lindsey. We agreed 800 grafts would be satisfactory for the results i wanted.
I had previously met with two other docs in the UK but Dr Lindsey came across much more helpful and friendly than either of the other docs.
The day of the surgery i was a little nervous but eager to start.
We started with a 0.9mm punch but after the first 150-200 holes Dr Lindsey decided to switch to 1.1mm graft as the grafts were getting damaged.
After another 150-200 holes we still had the same problem with the hairs transecting or capping i believe its called, where basically the hair breaks when being removed and leaves the root behind.
At this point We sat down and had a chat about the situation,options to take:-
we could either carry on but the original 800 grafts would be out of reach and would be lucky to get 500.
switch to a small strip to buffer the number up to 800
or stop altogether and admit defeat.(not an option after travelling 3000 miles)
In the end i decided to stick with FUE and just pray things got better.
Which thankfully they did, the right side of my donor area seemed to give much better results than my left side. In the end we actually got 628 grafts which was somewhere close to the original 800 so it worked out in the end.
Dr Lindsey was great through the whole situation, and his staff are great.
The two technicians that worked along side him on me were friendly and i felt at ease.
The next few days i spent in the hotel ordering room service and movies which left me a chunky hotel bill, but i personally felt to insecure to leave the hotel with my new patchy hair style lol
I decided to where a cap through customs and then just my hoody on the back half of my head during the flight. I was asked 3 TIMES to remove my cap in washington airport which i refused each time so they did some sort of swab test on it without removing it, i said that it could not be removed as it would disturb my surgery I even got asked to remove it heathrow as well but refused again lol. Next time i will just wrap it up with a bandage i think it will be easier.
Now the waiting game begins, still havent shed anything yet so fingers crossed im one of the 5% that doesnt, no shockloss either, very early days though so we'll see :confused:
A BIG THANKS TO DR WILLIAM LINDSEY AND HIS STAFF AND ALL THE POSTERS ON HERE THAT LEAD ME TO MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION AND NOT GETTING IT DONE IN THE UK.
AND A MASSIVE THANKS TO SPEX FOR HELP THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS, FLIGHTS, HOTEL EVERYTHING. TOP MAN